Friday, 7 February 2014

St. Peter's Hospital, Chertsey; saving pennies costs lives.

St. Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey is keeping the Coroner’s Court
in Woking busy these days, in this particular case it has taken nearly two
years to get a verdict which is an unacceptable delay for the family.

I’ve also got fairly cynical about the apologies made by
Chief Nurse Rankin – I’ve read too many of them in the year I’ve been doing
this blog.

Here she is apologising because a nurse was not allowed to
use a towel to clear up urine spilt on the floor; it cost too much money.

Presumably the cleaners, who once used to work for the
hospital and got paid a proper wage with proper job security, have now been
replaced by contract cleaners. So I’m guessing the nurse (who shouldn’t have
had to be doing this any way) didn’t have anyone to do it properly for her.

I’ve put the apology that Chief Nurse Rankin meant to give at the end of this piece;

Get Surrey
- 30 January 2014

Chlorine
gas released during a spillage clean-up at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals was
a significant contributing factor in the death of a patient, according to a
coroner.

William
Kent, 90, of Chestnut Grove, Staines, was admitted to hospital following a fall
in 2012 and was being nursed back to health at the time.

The inquest
at Woking Coroner’s Court last Thursday (January 23) was told that an attempt
to clear up spilled urine played a part in Mr Kent’s death.

One of the
nurses on the ward noticed the spillage and went to clean it.

It had become
practice on the ward not to use towels to clean up spillages, on the grounds of
cost, so instead she went to a store room and collected ‘haztab’ granules
designed to clear away blood and stains.

But these
tablets should not be mixed with urine as they react and produce chlorine gas.

The nurse
told the court: “I put granules on the floor. I left them for 10 minutes.

“I came
back to clean up the granules and noticed that my eyes were quite watery.

“It was
like going to a swimming pool.”

The
tablets, she said, had been used before to clear up spills and she thought it
was fine to do so in this instance.

Dr Karen
Henderson, the assistant coroner for Surrey, found that Mr Kent was generally
faint of health and his heart condition was also considered to be a contributing
factor in his death.

However,
she said it was clear that the chlorine gas was a significant contributing
factor.

Ashford and
St Peter’s chief nurse Suzanne Rankin responded to the conclusion by saying:
“Firstly, I would to say that our thoughts are with Mr Kent’s family.

“We are
sorry for their loss and for the distress caused at what is already a very
difficult time.

“We have
only just received the coroner’s findings and are awaiting a more detailed
notice from them, which will guide our next steps.

“In the
meantime, we would like to reassure Mr Kent’s family that we have taken this
incident very seriously and as soon as the problem with the cleaning granules
was discovered, we removed them from use in our hospitals.

“We also
reviewed our infection control and cleaning policies to ensure that all housekeeping
and ward-based staff know what to do in the event of a spillage.

“Going
forward, we will be looking at our infection control training, specifically
ensuring that staff know which cleaning products should be used in different
situations.

“We have
already been in touch with Mr Kent’s family and would be very willing to
arrange further contact if they would find it helpful.

“We would
like to assure them that we have already made several changes as a result of
this incident and will be quickly implementing any further learning across our
hospitals.”

This is the apology that Chief Nurse Rankin meant to give;

“On behalf of the management of St. Peter’s Hospital,
Chertsey, I am so sorry that one of our money saving ideas turns out to have
cost a patient his life. As Chief Nurse, patient safety and educating nursing
staff in basic Health and Safety should be my prime responsibility. I am
particularly sorry that a decent nurse who thought she was doing the right
thing has now got to live with this.”